Interview with Hatchet guitarist Julian Ramos

Hatchet, the hard hitting band from the San Francisco Bay Area has one goal in mind… bringing Thrash back to the forefront of Metal! The Heavy Metal scene has undergone many changes over the last decade or so and true Thrash Metal has taken a back seat to Death Metal, Hardcore, and Technical Metal. That is about to change; the band has inspired a movement in the bay area called The New Wave of Bay Area Thrashers, (N.W.O.B.A.T), which is a collaboration of bands that share the same mission as Hatchet; to bring Thrash back! With their new album Awaiting Evil the band is poised to show the world that Thrash is not dead. Guitarist Julian Ramos recently spoke with us about the band; their philosophy and their new record Awaiting Evil.

The New Wave of Bay Area Thrash (N.W.O.B.A.T) is an underground movement that you inspired. Who else is involved and how did it come about?
Julian The newer Thrash scene out here is definitely amazing. There are a lot of Thrash bands out here gigging especially as of late. When we started out, there were only a couple bands that had small followings, but what we really tried and are still trying to do is bring it all together and really make a network of bands and to really make it grow as a whole. We pretty much put on the first all new Thrash show up here a year and a half ago and flyered the hell out the bay area for it, we got a pretty decent turnout and the scene has just been growing since then. The other bands that are really involved and have been since the beginning are Fog of War, Devastator, and Dekapitator. Now there are a lot more such as Zombie Holocaust, Virulent Death, and Laceration.

Your brand new CD titled, Awaiting Evil was released on May 27th. Now that it is complete how do you feel about it? Are you satisfied with the outcome? What can metal fans expect?
Julian I think the record definitely represents us as a band so far. The writing on it, at least to us, has noticeable differences in the first slew of songs written as compared to the more recently written ones. I think the title track definitely stands out musically as compared to “Frailty of the Flesh”, which was one of the first ones. Overall we are pretty happy with the outcome, there are a couple things we now wish could’ve been a little different, but when you recording your first record it all feels so new to you and you don’t think of a lot of things till it’s already said and done. I think Metal fans can expect a truly crushing, fresh sounding Thrash Metal album. I don’t really think that you can say we sound like any other band. We just sound like Hatchet.

How did you first garner the attention of Metal Blade Records?
Julian Ha-ha you know you might have to ask them on this one. I remember I logged onto our MySpace one day and there was this message from “Metal Blade Records”. It read “Hello From Metal Blade”. I thought it was a joke at first, but we soon started talking to them and it was pretty much sealed soon after.

Even though the songs on Awaiting Evil are packed to the gills with huge guitars, intricate rhythms, and complex arrangements, there are still strong songs at the core of it all. When you write do you start building from a simpler frame and then just stack up all of the individual parts and nuances?
Julian You know when we write songs, we really think things through before making them solid. We definitely don’t just stack up a bunch of parts. As the main songwriter as far as the music goes, I really search and search for simple catchy riffs. Riffs that I know that are memorable yet at the same time are gonna make people wanna rage hard! It’s not something that I take lightly, every part definitely has thought behind it as to whether or not it fits, and what kind of part it makes the most sense as.

Can you offer any advice to any of the younger readers who may be reading this out there and are trying to etch out a career in the music business?
Julian From our little experience that we have my advice would be, If you really want to make it somewhere as band your gonna need to work hard and have an open mind. Don’t expect things to fall on your lap and just overall be prepared to work at it. Don’t stay isolated in one area. Travel to different cities to play shows.

How do you maintain that level of energy and exuberance? You guys sound like you’re going full bore on every tune.
Julian This is what we love to do. We love to thrash and go crazy. We’re not gonna go nuts on one track and have a power ballad on the next.

What was the writing process like for this CD? Did you guys all write together? How long did it take?
Julian We aren’t really a “jammy” type of band. I pretty much come to the band with a full song or a good idea of a song already written on guitar and then Dave would add his drum parts, and Marcus pretty much writes all the lyrics. The other guys do add in there own parts here and there. I think the one song that definitely had the most involvement on everyone’s part was “Awaiting Evil”. It pretty much took us the majority of the time we’ve been together to write it. I’d say about a year and a half.

Give us some insight into the record Awaiting Evil and the meaning behind its title?
Julian Honestly we named the record after our favorite song on the album. The title has a really distinctive sound to it and I think we were all kind of set on naming it after one of the songs as most bands do.

In the summer of 2007 you headlined the annual “Tidal Wave” Metal festival that showcased many veteran metal acts including: Ulysses Siren, Mercenary, Warning, and upcoming bands Scarecrow and Avenger of Blood. What was that like? Did you find it intimidating at all to be sharing the stage with all those heavy hitters?
Julian I think we all as band can still say that Tidal Wave was one of the funnest shows we’ve played to date. It was awesome getting up on a huge stage, outdoors like we were at some huge festival. The headlining thing actually kind of came together as a last minute thing, I don’t remember but I think the original headliner had to leave early or something like that. I would say it was more of an honor than anything else to share the stage with some of those old schoolers. There was a little nervousness as usual with any show, but I wouldn’t say intimidating.

What is next for Hatchet?
Julian Our next step is definitely to tour for the album. We basically want to get out there as much as possible and we do have a few good things in the works. Also we have a new drummer so new material is gonna be in the works here very soon.